Simracer = One Man Army

[Case_]

I really don't think it's that simple as "they're not focused enough". People are different and process information differently (and get distracted by different things). I was just surprised how many did mention the HUD being a distraction.

 

[larre90]

Here's what I am using in my HUD in AC... (I do mostly race online)

Race:
Chat
Map
Realtime-App
Race Essentials
Leaderboard
Trackdescription
Helicorsa
Virtual mirror
PTracker
Force Feedback-App
Renderstats

Practice:
Chat
Map
Realtime-App
Race Essentials
Leaderboard
Trackdescription
Helicorsa
Virtual Mirror
PTracker
Force Feedback-App
Renderstats
G-Meter
Camber-App

I don't like the CrewChief, I can gather information better by reading them, not listening.
I also have enough space for all these elements due to my triplescreen-setup.

I can understand why many people would feel overfed by my HUD, but for me it's perfect.

 

[Jason M Fuller]

First off, I use the hood view. I always felt very claustrophobic and distracted by the cockpit view. I use the Dashpanel app on a spare phone. Steam offers the app but it's on screen and I couldn't get it to work. I created my own displays on the app for the different games.

GT Legends - 7 segment display for gear, fuel bar, 3 lights for shift lights, analog RPM
GTR2 - Gear display, fuel bar, tire/brake temps, lap time, and the area around the gear display goes red for a shift light.
AC - Much the same as GTR2 but with DRS and and energy bar.

It keeps the game screen clean and I can see the red shift lights in my peripheral vision and i can just glance at the other information.

I use the virtual mirror but hate that I lose the side view. What would be nice is a virtual wink mirror. it would cover the sides and the rear view.

From Gumball Rally -
Franco: And now my friend, the first-a rule of Italian driving.
[Franco rips off his rear-view mirror and throws it out of the car]
Franco: What's-a behind me is not important.

 

[FernandoAFM]

I found I have less spacial awareness of other cars using VR than I did with a monitor (in Assetto Corsa.) The mirrors don't change when you move and there is no look behind button in VR. Also some of the cars have mirrors in awkward places where you cannot see someone coming up either side without turning your head to see the mirror. In some cars you can't see behind you at all. With a monitor I would see almost immediately if a buddy has crashed or slowed behind but in VR it can take me quite a while to notice and crane my head around whilst in a corner to be sure they aren't anywhere behind me so I can slow down and wait for them. You can see around tight corners much better in VR but I think a look behind/side to side button or virtual mirror gives you more spacial awareness of others than a HMD. Yes you can see to your side but that is often a last second warning and look left/right buttons work just the same, if you can easily see behind you then you see the whole story and have much more idea what is going on IMO.

Funny you say that. I feel VR gives me more awareness and I have avoided accidents that I probably wouldn’t have avoided with a single monitor. You can map a Look Back in VR, however, and it works. I just don’t know how disorienting it would be.

 

[Rory Wetherington]

Running VR and Crew Chief only, anything else just takes away from what I'm suppose to be concentrating on. I know for a fact when I use the relative times black box in iRacing I will start putting more focus on the cars catching me and my lap times are very inconsistent and I miss my marks a lot more, but when I run only Crew Chief in AC my lap times are very consistent because I'm only concentrating on driving.

 

[M-Bimmer]

GT sport and simracing =

 

[Glen Orpheus]

how about this, what if we had no HUD like in real life, thats how i run all my sims if i can as i thought it was meant to be a simulation ?
or how about run Crew Chief, because in real life thats how you get that same info/data with someone informing you over radio.
thats just my take on things, i know there are many many of you that rely on such data but for me even on triple screens i constantly feel like my view is obscured and breaks my immersion.

 

[Tberg]

In my opinion people get distracted with info on screen because they're not focused enough, when i'm in an intense battle, trying to beat my best time or qualifying for an event i can't see anything except the track... i look at those info's with the blink of an eye, really don't get why they "distract" people...

Practice man, practice
Seasoned simracers like you and me have no issues checking stuff on the fly. Real racers practice reaction time and multitasking in the cockpit as well, so I don't get either why some say "real life" is racing with absolute no information. They just have all the info in the dash, multiple pages, too many buttons for the average simracer, etc

 

[Trimaz]

I race on triples, but I don't use a HUD, I do however use an old phone running EKSIMRacing Virtual Dashboard which displays my vitals such as speed, RPM, gear and maybe lap time and position like a what I assume a "real" race car would use. It seems to do the job nicely unless the game doesn't support it then I just do what I can with that particular game.

 

[Serge.M]

I race on triples, but I don't use a HUD, I do however use an old phone running EKSIMRacing Virtual Dashboard which displays my vitals such as speed, RPM, gear and maybe lap time and position like a what I assume a "real" race car would use. It seems to do the job nicely unless the game doesn't support it then I just do what I can with that particular game.

Out of interest why do you class speed reading as vital? What does it give you?

 

[Trimaz]

Out of interest why do you class speed reading as vital? What does it give you?

Nah, not really, I just focus on RPM and gear. The speed is really there to fill the screen, really.